Letao Moving HQ to Zhuhai

Chen Hu, VP of Chinese vertical B2C focusing on footwear told local media that the company is gradually moving its headquarter from Beijing to Zhuhai. We previously wrote that the Zappos wannabe turned own-branded footwear etailer were challenged by many issues and had shed off a vast majority of its headcount.

Not all Beijing staff’d be cut off as some are supposed to take care of Letao’s cooperation with other B2C platforms like TMall and Jingdong Mall.

Chen said that since Letao’s design team and manufacturers are all based in Zhuhai, a city in China’s southern Guangdong province, it make more sense for the company to move its headquarter to that city.

Currently Letao has offices in Beijing, Zhuhai and Hangzhou staffed by about a hundred.

Chen also mentioned that in its process of shifting from reseller to brand creator, Letao indeed has been looking to bring down total costs, it’s inevitable and necessary to support the transform. That could be one of the reasons why its recent aggressive layoff s was misinterpreted as Letao is in huge trouble. He disclosed that some of Letao’s own brands are doing not bad in the market.

one of Letao’s own brands

In his opinion, Chinese ecommerce landscape are taking shape as giants like Taobao/TMall, JingDong Mall and so on dominated large chunk of the market leaving all the minor players eating up the remaining market. Those small ones are still in search of their own way out, cutting costs is one of the ways to weather the winter.